But this year it’s harder to scroll past. In Gaza, families are still searching for the people they love, and for them peace isn’t a mood or a lifestyle choice. It’s the plain right to sleep through the night. It’s a reminder of what peace really is. It isn’t decoration. It’s the thing everything else sits on. When it’s missing, everything else goes with it: school, food, sleep, even the ability to plan next week.

Most of us just don’t notice, because for us it’s always been there.

Let’s think about how we usually talk about peace in our personal lives. We perhaps treat it like a place we’ll get to later. When this project is done, we’ll relax. After the promotion, things will settle. Once the loan is cleared, once the kids are grown, once the house is finished, then we’ll finally slow down. Peace becomes a picture we carry around, a quiet morning somewhere down the road, and we run towards it for years. Most of us are guilty of this.

The trouble is that the picture keeps moving. A bigger salary brings a bigger lifestyle, and a bigger lifestyle brings bigger worries. The dream of peace ends up being the very thing that keeps us from it, because we’re so busy chasing that we never stop to check on the person doing the chasing.

Think about it for a second. Plenty of people around the world would give almost anything for a boring, ordinary, quiet Tuesday. And many of us who already have one spend it planning how to finally get some peace later.

Say the deal out loud and it sounds ridiculous. We’ll be tense, tired and short with everyone we love for decades so we can be calm at the very end. Some people never get to the end. Others get there so worn out, and so used to the noise, that the quiet feels strange.

Peace isn’t a prize you win by working hard enough. It lives much closer to how you get through a normal day. Eating a meal without a screen in front of you. Saying no to something that would swallow your whole evening, and not feeling guilty about it. Calling your mother because you want to hear her voice, not because it was on your list.

It connects to the bigger picture too. Big decisions get made in big rooms, but the habits that feed conflict, like impatience, envy and the constant need to win, get practised in small ones. People under permanent pressure tend to pass it on. If we want a more peaceful world, it seems like a lot to ask of people who have never known a calm day.

None of this means giving up on ambition. Plenty of people are working flat out just to get through the month, and telling them to go find some inner calm would be unkind. That’s not the point. But if you have even a little room to choose, ask yourself what you’re chasing and what it’s costing you today.

So on the Day of Peace, it’s worth holding both ideas. Peace is something leaders owe to people everywhere, and it’s also something we can practise on an ordinary weekday. Speak up for those who are being denied it. Go for a walk without headphones. Leave your phone in another room for a while. Let a grudge go. Being at peace today isn’t a break from your goals. It might be the goal.